A Weekend at School

Louise and Shirley followed Amos and Jesse into the hall, giving them all sorts of suggestions on how not to get lost. Burt pulled the door open and a whirlwind of snow blasted them in the face. Jesse and Amos pushed there way outside while Burt and Ben forced the door shut. Burt had hollered something to Amos, but the noise of the wind was so loud neither he, nor Jesse could make out what Burt had said. 

Outside, the boys found they could only see for a couple of feet. They bent forward as the blowing snow stung their faces, making them squint, which made seeing even more difficult.

Staying close to each other, they started along the building on the south side. Amos was walking in front and before he had taken ten steps he fell, head long into a deep snowdrift. Jesse tripped on Amos’s boot and came down on top of him. They struggled to their feet, brushed the snow from their faces and once again started forward. The snow was almost waist high making it hard to walk. Determined, they struggled along and in awhile came to the end of the building.

Once they were away from the building and out in the open, they found it was even more impossible to see. After taking no more than ten steps into the storm, they were no longer sure of which direction they were headed.

“Let’s turn back,” shouted Jesse. “If we do get to the woodshed we’ll never find our way back.”

“I think you’re right,” hollered Amos over his shoulder.

They turned back for the school only to find the building had vanished. In a blink of an eye, they were lost. Trying hard not to panic, Amos said, “we can’t be to far from the building.”

“Yah, not to far in what direction?” shouted Jesse.

“We know the wind is blowing from the north,” yelled Amos. “If we keep our right shoulder to the wind, we should bump into the building shortly.”

“You lead,” said Jesse.

Trying hard to see, Amos started off. Jesse held onto the back of his jacket so they wouldn’t become separated. It was very difficult moving straight ahead because of the strong wind, which kept pushing them sideways. With all his strength, Amos leaned into the wind and kept pushing forward. In places the snow was only to their knees, and walking was easier, then all of a sudden they’d be in a snowdrift up to their hips and they could hardly move at all. All the time the stinging snow pelted their faces and stung their eyes.

Little by little they waded through the deep snow, all the time pushing against the raging wind, and becoming steadily colder with each step. Even though he wore wool mittens, Amos’s hands ached from the cold. He felt Jesse tugging on the back of his jacket, and each time he slowed down Jesse ran into his back. Amos was tired from the exertion it took just to keep moving, and he was beginning to think Dale was right, they should have burned the desks.

A few minutes later, Jesse pulled hard on Amos’s jacket and shouted, “Amos, we’ll never find the school in this wind, let’s sit down in the snow and rest.”

Shortly after that, Amos felt Jesse let loose of his jacket and knew that he had stopped. Amos thought about the stories he’d heard about people freezing to death in snowstorms, and a frightening vision of Jesse and himself being found frozen in a snowdrift flashed through his mind.

“No,” he yelled. “We can’t stop, come on Jesse, we can make it.”

Again Jesse protested, “I’m tired Amos, and my legs feel like logs.”

“It’s only a little farther now. Come on, I’m sure the building is just ahead of us,” coaxed Amos.

Amos helped Jesse to his feet and they dragged their way forward one slow step after another. Amos was bent forward; his lungs felt like they were on fire, snow was frozen to both their faces and caked to their caps and jackets. Again Amos fell, pulling Jesse down on top of him. Exhausted and cold they dug their way to their feet and continued on. All of a sudden the wind came with such force it pushed them over backwards into the same hole they had just climbed out of. They wanted so badly to just lie there and rest it was hard to think of anything else. The wind blew snow over top of them so fast, that in only a couple minutes they were almost buried.